Devon and Alexis finally figured out how to re-hack our ATM! Remember back in 2001 when I used the "advertising messages" feature of our ATM to make it display things like DESTROY CAPITALISM while you're waiting for your money? (As seen in Adbusters #45!) Well, back in 2006 we were forced to "upgrade" that ATM (I think it was part of some bank-mandated firedrill after one of their crypto algorithms was cracked) and that new version dragged us, kicking and screaming, from 1976 technology to 1981 technology: it was no longer possible to just type in several pages of snarky comments from the ATM keypad. Instead, you were expected to upload those screens as images instead of typing in text.

And by images, I mean 320×240, 1-bit, amber on purple images. And the only way to get them into the ATM was by using some hard-to-find Windows 95 software to convert them to their proprietary image format, and then using a modem to dial up to the ATM and upload them with Z-Modem.

After many hours of trying, we never actually got that last part to work, and eventually gave up.

Well, a couple of years ago, that ATM (a Tranax Mini-Bank 1000) was replaced with a Nautilus Hyosung NY-1800, letting us make the jump from 1981 technology all the way to 1997 technology! This ATM -- once you have acquired the secret software and proper proprietary serial cable -- lets you upload 480×234 8-bit images! But the screen has non-square pixels -- no, seriously, this is a thing that still happens in the Twenty-First Century. I had to pre-smoosh my images to make the circles be circular.

The software is hard to find because they don't want to give it to anyone who hasn't flown to Texas and paid the extortion to take their class to become an Authorized Repair Technician or something. Even though I own this hardware outright, they won't give me the software required to operate it. This kind of nonsense should be illegal.

Anyway, we hax0red the bastard, and now it's hilarious. Here's a video:

I understand the amount of baby powder those guys left in the lounge was unprecedented. Apparently their show required that they roll around in it first. (And no, "baby powder" is not a euphemism in this case.)